A Blessed Name
by CptAbLovegood
Summary: Damen and Laurent babble where they name Kastors child and talk briefly about his future.
He sat propped up on a pile of pillows, having been attended by Paschal, the white cotton contrasting against his dark olive skin. Laurent sat on the bed next to him gently stroking his sleep mussed hair, no one else occupied the room. Laurent had sent them all away, only Jord and Pallas stood outside (Laurent did not fully trust any of the men that had been the regents or Kastor's and so he only allowed his soldiers from the border to guard Damen while the rest of their troops marched to the capital).

A knock came on the door and Laurent answered "Enter." It made Damen smile to think that they were now both equals in his own palace and that their men would answer to either of them. Jord opened the door ushering in a woman and closed it behind her. She approached the bed cautiously, unsure of how to conduct herself. She knelt down next to the bed, presenting the bundle in her hands to Damianos as is it were a prized possession. Damen looked at Laurent, uncertain if he should take the cloths she offered, but with a gentle nod from the king of Vere he took it in his arms. Damen looked down in to the small face beneath his and then back at the wet nurse. "Has he a name?" he asked.  
"No not yet Exalted, his parents had not the time, under the circumstances." She replied eyes downcast, Damen nodded in response. Once it was clear that he would say no more Laurent dismissed the woman and told her they would call for her later.

Laurent looked over and pulled a piece of material away from the child's face. "He looks like you."  
Damen shook his head, looking at the baby. It's skin was pigmented but not as much as his or Kastor's had been, the hair on its head was mass of brown curls, yet again paler than the brothers had been and his eyes were the same shade of brown, though he noticed with a pang that they were the same shape as Jokaste's.  
"No, he looks like any Akielion. I can't imagine that something so small was fathered by someone as big as Kastor."  
Laurent smiled. "He and you were both that size once."  
Damen looked thoughtfully down at the baby and offered it his finger which it clenched in a chubby fist. "It's a wonder he's so calm."  
"Maybe you remind him of Kastor."  
He didn't know why he said it but as he did he knew it to be true, "Kastor never held his son. In fact I don't believe he's ever been held by anyone other than his wet nurse."  
"Then maybe he can just sense that he is loved."  
Damen looked up from the baby into Laurent's eyes: blue mirroring brown. He then closed them as Laurent's delicate porcelain hand tucked a lock of hair behind his ear and continued down to caress his face.

"What will you name him?"  
Damen sat silent for a moment, thinking of all the people that they had both lost: Theomedes, Aguste, Aleron, Huet, Nicaise and even Aimeric.  
When Damen finally spoke he said what Laurent had wished him not to. "How about Auguste?"  
"Akielion royalty with the name of a dead Veretian prince? It does not bode well. And what of your family"  
Damen shook his head gently. "Once upon a time my father and brother had been great men, but both died in the pursuit of more power, their names are cursed and I would not wish that on him before he can even speak."  
There was a brief moment of quiet and in that moment they knew what he would be called.  
"Are you sure?" Laurent asked, "After all he was just a pet, a prostitute."  
"No. No he was so much more. At such a young age he was braver and wiser than many men I've ever met and if it weren't for his sacrifice we would most probably both be dead. We owe him our future. He would be blessed to be named such."  
"Then I can't think of a more appropriate name."

"You should say that he is yours and not Kastor's."  
"No. If I do that then his life will be a lie and he will just be another bastard like his father and although it's not a disgrace in Akieilos, I have a feeling Veretian customs may become influential in the near future."  
At this Laurent took Damen's spare hand in his own, and lifting it gently, pressed a chaste kiss to his palm. "Then you will tell all that he is Kastor's? Tell him?"  
"Close friends shall know, members of the court that we can trust. But to others I will simply say that he is my ward, people will believe whatever they wish. I can see from your face that you worry he will either be used as leverage or as a figurehead for the remainder of Kastor's men, but they will not know which to do as they do not know who his father is. Besides he will not turn against us, he will be brought up as our own and never want for anything. Unlike Kastor, when the time comes he will be given everything he is promised. We will bring him up with the memory of the brother I grew up with and not the man that he became. My brother would've been so proud and he would have been such a good father. We shall endeavour to be what he couldn't for his son."  
"We?" Laurent asked looking at Damen. The king blushed in response.  
"I only meant that, I mean, assuming that we…" he trailed off, unaware of what to say, embarrassed that he had assumed that he and Laurent would remain together and rule together, yet it had not been discussed and he was worried now that his feelings for Laurent had made him jump to foolish conclusions.  
"I know what you meant and you're right. He shall grow up calling us both father. He will be taught Veretian and Akielion. He will spend his summers in Arles and his winters in Ios and he will grow up with the two proudest parents a boy ever had. He will be known as Prince Nicaise in both our kingdoms and when the times comes he will take the throne and rule our empire as the greatest leader these lands have ever seen."  
Damen leant up to kiss Laurent with a smile playing on his lips. "I thought you didn't like to indulge in fantasies."  
"I simply speak the truth. I won't start lying to you now Damen." And he sealed his lips to Damen's, their child and future between them.

...

 **So after I finished the trilogy I was glad it had a happy ending but felt like it left so much unanswered, like will Jord ever be happy? Where did Jokaste go? Did they form an empire/where did they live if so? AND what happened to Kastors baby? And I felt like there needed to be an epilogue, (thankfully I think I read somewhere that three more books/chapters are going to be written?) This is my interpretation of what would've happened also straight away after the last book ended, and I know that the baby isn't his but we all know Damen would look after it right? Might do a follow up fic of prince Nicaise growing up as little snapshots.**


End file.
